All his films get good reviews. His latest, "The Descendants," is getting great ones. The story of a man (George Clooney) dealing with tragedy in Hawaii, where he is a lawyer and land baron, is a beautifully moving, funny film. Payne talked about the film -- and talking with him is an interesting experience.

Fiercely intelligent, he considers each question before he answers -- not all movie people do. You can judge what he thought of the questions by the length of his answers (usually). He is a fascinating guy to talk to, though one gets the impression he'd just as soon be off making another movie than sitting in a hotel room talking about one.

Answer: Working on it. Working on it. The first four came in fairly rapid succession, between '96 and '04. I had a movie out every two years -- "Citizen Ruth," "Election," "About Schmidt" and "Sideways" came in fairly rapid succession. It's just between then and now, I don't know, I got involved in some producing and spent two years on one screenplay that I'll make in a couple of years. I've been working on this since '09. I don't know, (expletive) happens.

Q: Producing seems to suck in a lot of directors.

A: Never going to do that again. I'm so not interested in producing, other than doing my own work, producing my own films. I only do it as favors, for other people to get their films made. But that's not the big-time suck. The big-time suck for me was that (frequent writing partner) Jim Taylor and I spent over two years, full-time, writing a script for a fairly large-scale science-fiction social satire that I'll get back to in a couple years. It's just going to be a big magilla with a lot of special effects, and I have to learn how to do all that crap.

Q: That sounds fun.

A: Yeah, but now I'm anxious to just get a camera and shoot, beat up some actors. I started working on this ("The Descendants") in July '09. I've been working on this film full-time for two years. We, meaning my producing partners and I, acquired the book when it was in galleys about four years ago. I was still busy writing that aforementioned script with Jim, so I didn't commit to it for a while. My producing partners and the studio hired a different set of writers just to start to get it up on its feet, maybe lure in a different director. Another director was involved for a while. All of that fell through and then I just said, "OK, I'll do it," two years ago. And I wanted to write it alone, without Jim this time, to find my own personal way into it. Somehow I needed to feel it because it's not my story, it's not my world.

Q: Are you happy with the results?

A: Yeah, it's OK. I never wanted it to be anything other than I wanted to feel something, feel like it'll be a good movie at the end. Funny, and with pathos, I guess.

Q: How important is the balance of those two things?

A: Well, it's like life. Life contains all of those things. I want the movie to mirror life, in a way.

Q: The funny stuff doesn't always bubble up in real life.

A: Well, speak for yourself (laughs).

Q: You've talked about the importance of casting in "The Descendants."

A: The actors are the greatest executors of tone in a film. They're the most important cinematic component.

Q: And you wanted Clooney from the start?

A: Yeah, my first choice.

Q: And if he weren't available?

A: I'd have gotten someone else. Would have found someone better (laughs).

Q: You're elusive in talking about what you aim for in your films. Why?

A: Why should I be specific in talking about it? It should be specific in the films. Here's another elusive answer for you: I just want to make a decent movie and have a nice experience while doing so. I have to have made a movie sometimes to begin to figure out why I wanted to make it in the first place. I don't go into a movie thinking, "I'm going to say this" and, "I'm going to do this." Really, I just like movies, and I just want to make a movie.

Q: This film is getting great buzz. How do you handle that?

A: I'm just grateful that I have some time in my life where the films that I'm making are in some way not excluded from the zeitgeist. Many directors can do honest work their entire lives, and it's almost like a comet entering an orbit or something; it never quite enters the zeitgeist. And then successful directors have a time, often it's been said around 10 years, where the films that they're making are somehow within the zeitgeist. They can float out before and after. Think of Robert Altman. ... You just kind of keep working.

In this brief life, I'm in some period approaching a prime. I've got the youth and the energy to do it -- it's a physically demanding job. I still have my mental capacities -- I haven't smoked too much pot yet (laughs). And so when I get these good notices ... it's not that it makes me so giddy or so happy. It just calms my nerves. I think, 'Oh, what a relief,' and I can keep doing it because I like doing it so much.

Q: How do you make movies connect with people?

A: That's luck. That's where luck enters a director's career. Because many directors can do sincere and honest work, but they don't always have the luck that what they are doing either entertains or appeals to or connects with an audience -- a large-enough audience to allow them to keep on making films on the scale at which they're making them.